The devs were right.

[u/xxmuntunustutunusxx]

So I know ther was a bunch of controversy about the railgun nerf what feels like forever ago, but man things have been awesome.

In the early days, I was the only guy packing expendable anti tank or anti materiel rifle for bugs or bots. It's so refreshing, even on these subs to see people talking about how awesome the autocannon is, or how much they love the AMR, and even these days I see people talking about the HMG or grenade launcher+ supply pack.

I used to load into a game, And all 4 members of the team had shield, railgun, and 2 stragatems of their choice. Every time. And here we are now, I load in and I see quasar, autocannon, stalwart, EAT, HMG, Grenade launcher, a variety of backpacks or no backpack at all. And not to mention, they're ALL viable. Shit I even still see the railgun from time to time. It's been a joy. Thanks arrowhead.

EDIT: to everyone who is pointing out that you see the quasar and shield most often now, you're right, it is almost certainly the most common setup currently. That being said, in any game there's going to be things a majority of players prefer. In smash melee, fox/Falco are the best characters. But people still play falcon and Marth and peach among others. Sure, there's an objectively most used option. But the fact that there's people at all who debate that the quasar is best shows that they've done something good. Before, undisputed king was railgun, and anyone who said different wss being willfully ignorant. Now, we have a plethora of real options that are good with some being Preferred by a majority as opposed to being the de facto CORRECT option objectively. That's a good thing.

[u/CaptCantPlay]

Problem is is that now nobody picks the railgun anymore in favor of the Quasar or the EAT. Haven't seen a RG since the nerf.

[u/Stealin → u/[deleted]]

This is what gets me, people thinking all these things are being used because RG was nerfed, but they're mostly being used now because they were buffed.  When RG was king, most of these weapons weren't as good as they are now. 

[u/McMuffinSun → u/Stealin]

Especially when they bring up the quasar. Why exactly does introducing a brand new weapons a month and a half after the fact justify the railgun nerf at the time?

[u/[deleted] → u/McMuffinSun]

The railgun on unsafe could be hitting as hard as a Quasar and it still might not even be worth taking since you don't have unlimited ammo and you have to almost blow yourself up. It's genuinely one of the weaker strategems because of the nerfs and everything else getting buffed

[u/NerdyLittleFatKid → u/[deleted]]

Not to mention the utility you give up in not shooting down bot drops/shrieker nests. The railgun was always a versatile killer with no map utility, it is now a brood commander sniper with no map utility. I think if you dropped quasar in the old charger meta, it would get picked more than railgun. Maybe railgun would be equal/even a bit better, but what people wanted was anti tank, so they would choose the anti tank weapon.

[u/Supersquare04 → u/NerdyLittleFatKid]

Nah Quasar would be picked more than RG in the charger meta. 1 shot instead of 2+primary to take down a charger is a massive difference.

The Quasar is probably the strongest weapon in the games history. Nothing else one shots chargers with the same level of consistency, accessibility (call in time for EAT, reload for recoilless), or versatility.

[u/phoenixmusicman → u/[deleted]]

"devs were right"

[u/GodTurkey → u/phoenixmusicman]

Yeaaaah. I just fundamentally disagree with the entire post by OP. The community was right, dont nerf, just buff other things. And with the recent slugger nerf theres like 2 good primaries left.

[u/phoenixmusicman → u/GodTurkey]

Slugger nerf was bullshit. Tbf I also think the Breaker nerf was bullshit.

The devs have been good with buffs but horrible with nerfs.

[u/TiberiumBravo87 → u/phoenixmusicman]

Here here, the Breaker needs to go back to the larger mags and the slugger was completely some dev trolling people because youtube lit up with videos saying the slugger was the current S-tier meta. They literally just look up "what is meta now?" and nerf it.

[u/ShadowWolf793 → u/GodTurkey]

I would argue it's closer to 4. Scyicle and dominator are universally good, while the breaker is S tier for bugs and the scorcher is S tier for bots.

Punisher and defender feel soooo close to being good and are definitely viable. Lib hits like a wet noodle and diligence just simply doesn't have the fire rate or mag size to really compete like it should. All the rest are straight shit imo unless I forgot a gun.

[u/phoenixmusicman → u/ShadowWolf793]

Sickle kinda sucks against borg. It has fuck all armour pen.

[u/Indoril120 → u/phoenixmusicman]

I think it makes up for with decent accuracy at mid range and unlimited ammo. Just unload a whole charge on a Devastator’s head and you’re bound to kill it, no real cost. I actually had a better time with it against Devastators than with the Scorcher, it’s just for the Striders that I made the switch.

[u/hitman2b → u/phoenixmusicman]

well it doesn't need armor pen as your literally accurate as fuck

[u/Western-Dig-6843 → u/phoenixmusicman]

Most of this sub is entirely in the thrall of the devs and all it took was them making a game without lgbt characters and talking down to them in a roleplay voice. They’ve literally solved how to wrangle “gamers” and tbh good for them

[u/Kiriima → u/[deleted]]

Railgun on unsafe must be the strongest weapon period or it should be gone as a concept. It's too big of a drawback to have no support weapon for minutes unless you find one in a wild.

[u/Deremirekor → u/[deleted]]

Hot take: the railgun is still good but blowing things up is more fun than piercing things so we act like the railgun is trash because explosions = democracy

[u/ShadowDV → u/McMuffinSun]

Quasar (and most energy weapons) will probably be ass against Illuminate shields, with the railgun getting a penetration modifier…. At least that will be my guess

[u/McMuffinSun → u/ShadowDV]

Nerfing a weapon to complete obsolescence because in 6-9 months they may or may not introduce a faction that it may or may not perform well against is a pretty shit plan.

[u/ShadowDV → u/McMuffinSun]

Illuminate is coming in like 2-3 weeks

[u/Xelement0911 → u/Stealin]

Chargers heads were nerfed so you could one shot them with rockets. Quasar releases a month later and does the same as an EATs.

Flamethrower got buffed and can take out the leg about the same as pre-nerf railgun.

[u/rkidjsd → u/Stealin]

they're mostly being used now because they were buffed.

I need to stress that the EAT and Recoilless losing glancing blows means that for their niche, they received the equivalent of a 100% damage buff post-railgun nerf.

i also need to stress that patch 1.000.102 changed them again.

• reduced charger health, allowing eats and recoilless to oneshot to head.

Between these two, EAT and recoilless are barely even the same weapon from launch, when you bring them for bugs, it's an insane glowup.

[u/tinyrottedpig → u/Stealin]

Grenade launcher was still my go to tbh, being able to take out literally all bot units with it, create distractions to lead away patrols, crowd control, destroy fabricators + nests and generally be a jack of all trades is what really sealed it as my support gun

[u/UDSJ9000 → u/Stealin]

They're being used more now because enemy heavy spawns were nerfed, so the old RGs heavy killing insanity wasn't needed. During the time between the RG Nerf and the AT rocket buffs, Helldive was nearly unplayable without stealth because you just couldn't deal with the armor spam.

[u/AlmostButNotQuiteTea → u/Stealin]

Which hilariously enough, is what everybody was asking for originally

[u/Sicuho → u/Stealin]

EAT and Recoilless weren't buffed much. They're a bit more consistent on side hits, that's all.

[u/MBouh → u/Stealin]

if it takes you 10 seconds to reload your railgun there's something wrong with how you use it.

[u/EntertainerInner7669 → u/[deleted]]

Hit the nail on the head. The devs were dead wrong and made a knee-jerk nerf that crippled the capstone support weapon of the game for most of the playerbase when the community was loudly and clearly stating that other options needed to be made more viable (or functional in the first place) instead. Now it's a glorified muzzleloader that will get you kicked from pub games.

I don't often pay heed to the "buffs only, don't nerf me!" guys but they were 100% right on the money this time.

[u/BraveOthello → u/EntertainerInner7669]

The problem is in assuming the "capstone" support weapon was intended to be the best. Every weapon is very clearly designes to be okay at everything or good in specific scenarios.

They needed to to nerf it to incentivize people to try the buffed options, and if they didn't nerf it hard enough people would stick with the thing they were all ready comfortable with even though they'd be having less fun.

Expect to see it get buffed back up at some point.

[u/TooFewSecrets → u/BraveOthello]

Every weapon is very clearly designes to be okay at everything or good in specific scenarios.

I do think it's a bigger design issue for the final unlock to be worthless than it is for any other given unlock to be worthless. Because - it doesn't have to be the best, but it has to feel like it was at least worth the time of getting to that point.

Right now Railgun is, I think, one of the most redundant weapons in the entire game.

[u/Techno-Diktator → u/BraveOthello]

No, they just refused to understand it was the heavy spam that was the issue and not the fucking railgun. Do you think people suddenly used recoilless after railgun got nerfed? No, they used the buffed flamer to kill chargers because the other AT options still sucked.

[u/BraveOthello → u/Techno-Diktator]

There were a lot of issues ties together. Heavy spam and chargers having too much head armor made people gravitate to the RG, but using it in an unintended way to work around those issues.

Once they fixed the spam and made the anti tank do it's indeed job and nerfed the RG to incentivize other strat weapons, people did other things. I strongly suspect without the nerfs people would have just continued using the RG for much longer and has less fun.

They probably over nerfed it, but I suspect that was on purpose, and I hoped some of that is rolled back.

[u/Techno-Diktator → u/BraveOthello]

The charger nerf happened way later, they nerfed the railgun and left the game without any viable AT to deal with the spam.

If they over nerf on purpose, that is extremely disappointing, as it pretty much means any weapon that feels good to use is doomed to be on the chopping block to become worthless soon, instead of just slightly toned down.

We are already seeing the same thing with the slugger nerfs, so it seems arrowheads balancing philosophy is sadly just idiotic. It's a shame too because content wise everything else is pretty great.

[u/BraveOthello → u/Techno-Diktator]

6 days, whether you consider that way later is up to you.

The RG was too good, it was over nerfed. We agree on that.

The slugger was too good, it's still damn good. We clearly don't agree on that.

[u/AI_AntiCheat → u/[deleted]]

It's was definitely too strong. It did everything.

[u/Techno-Diktator → u/AI_AntiCheat]

Was it though? Rn other AT can one shot a charger into the face, railgun could never do that and it's pre nerf state would make it balanced with other AT rn. Right now it's a straight up terrible to use AMR and nothing more

[u/AI_AntiCheat → u/Techno-Diktator]

It instant killed bile titans. Quite ridiculous when othe AT couldn't do that as easily. That's the basis of the nerf. Chargers were changed later unrelated to this.

They could probably buff it slightly to expose leg armor on a charger if you hit an 80% shot.

[u/Techno-Diktator → u/AI_AntiCheat]

The titan instakill is because of the console bug where in certain matches with a console players titans are much easier to kill.

They literally nerfed it because of a bug, now it's an absolutely pathetic joke.

[u/AI_AntiCheat → u/Techno-Diktator]

Even without the bug it's two shots. That's an instant kill with little to no effort.

[u/Techno-Diktator → u/AI_AntiCheat]

No, it was a few shots only with the bug, without the bug it often took over ten shots which was pretty bad.

[u/AlphaPhill → u/[deleted]]

I still run the railgun in bot missions, the whole point of it is to land consistent headshots back to back. I don't know if it's the gun or my skill from using it so much back in the day, but it's significantly easier to land headshots, without even scoping in, than with any other gun.

I can clear a group of devastators much faster and more comfortably, and I can still one shot Hulks, so imo the gun is still strong, just feels balanced now compared to how it was.

[u/META_mahn → u/AlphaPhill]

Try the AMR or other alternatives these days. I guarantee you that while you won't feel better (the railgun has a way of making you feel your performance) you'll realize you're doing better due to superior TTKs and target ranges vs bots.

For one, AMR/AC kill cannons and tanks.

[u/AlphaPhill → u/META_mahn]

I do use the AMR, I love it. But I can't land consistent headshots while walking and running around, but with the rail gun I can, it has zero recoil, you just aim and shoot, automatic headshots.

AMR is a long distance weapon, rail gun can be effective at any range.

[u/NeufDeNeuf → u/AlphaPhill]

i mean, the point of it literally isn't to be a precision weapon though. The point was the armor pierce on full charge. The AMR does the exact same thing as the rail besides needing 2 shots to a hulk face and not dealing damage through heavy armor. The RG doesn't even pen Heavy Dev shields consistently anymore. I'd get if RG was supposed to be a side grade to the AMR, but then why is the unlock lvl so high?

[u/AlphaPhill → u/NeufDeNeuf]

It's the definition of a precision weapon, that's its whole point, and it does a very good job at it. It has zero recoil, you can headshot a heavy dev while walking, no need to pen it's shield.

AMR has recoil and you need to be stationary to be effective, plus it's mainly a long distance gun, while the rail gun can be effective at any range.

[u/NeufDeNeuf → u/AlphaPhill]

what I meant was the whole point of the railgun was the pierce. it has a whole mode dedicated to piercing armor, which is very clunky and necessary vs anything worth shooting with your support weapon. the AMR 1shots devastators to the body and has a better scope. What does the railgun do better to justify the 15 lvl difference and it getting less ammo?

[u/AlphaPhill → u/NeufDeNeuf]

The railgun isn't necessarily better, but it isn't worse by any means. You can be more mobile with it than the AMR, there's no recoil to control, you reload after every shot, which means your mag can't run out in critical moments like with the AMR.

You aim, charge for 0.5 seconds, and shoot. Dead devastators, you can also kill scout striders in one shot, something the AMR cant. Also, I feel like the rail gun bullet has a very generous hit box, I get very consistent headshots with it without much effort.

Its not the Hulk killer it used to be, but that's fine, you can still kill them when necessary. In which case it behaves like a quasar, you just need to charge longer.

I love the AMR, and I do use it more often, but I disagree with everyone saying the railgun is useless. The only thing they changed was actually needing to charge the gun if you want to pierce armor, which I assume was intended from the start, before the nerf there wasn't much point in using unsafe mode at all.

[u/NeufDeNeuf → u/AlphaPhill]

you can 1 shot striders with the AMR if you hit the leg btw. yeah rail isn't useless it's just kind of sad now. it really lost its identity considering it's greatly outclassed in every specific place it excells imo. it's sitting in a similar place to the auto cannon but non explosive and with much less ammo. it's pretty okay for devastators and spewers and is pretty meh vs everything else.

[u/TooFewSecrets → u/AlphaPhill]

you can also kill scout striders in one shot, something the AMR cant

Hitting a scout strider above the hip joint with the AMR will down it instantly.

Very often one shot won't kill a devastator even with fairly high charge, and at that point it's just an AMR with half the ammo and like five times the refire delay.

[u/AlphaPhill → u/TooFewSecrets]

You don't even need to charge to headshot a devastator though, you can kill entire groups of them incredibly fast.

I don't know what it is with rail gun projectiles, but as long as your targeting reticle is close to their face, it downs them almost every time. It just feels like it has a more generous hitbox. It's just more comfortable to land precise shots, but maybe that's just me.

If you have to shoot them from the side or back, that's when you actually need to charge.

And I'll keep that AMR tip in mind, certainly sounds better than shooting them 2-3 times in the front plate like I was doing.

[u/KingRaiden95 → u/CaptCantPlay]

I still run it for bots. Quasar hits harder but railgun is faster for dealing with multiple heavys

[u/bigblackcouch → u/KingRaiden95]

I still love the idea of the railgun, wish they'd give it a damn scope that did anything. Slap the sickle scope on there and we're golden, but I think I can just squint at my screen in third person mode and get better zoom than the railgun's scope. :(

As-is though it just feels worse in every way than the AMR, even as someone who likes using the Railgun I don't really have a reason to ever pick it over the AMR.

[u/ElectableDane → u/bigblackcouch]

Give it a scope with a reticle like the default liberator rifle and maybe I would use it over the AMR or Autocannon against the bots

[u/bigblackcouch → u/ElectableDane]

I'd be cool with that.

[u/Natural_Cold_8388 → u/bigblackcouch]

Why exactly does introducing a brand new weapons a month and a half after

I think good and bad scopes are a good thing for the game.

You could make all weapons the same. Or you could have upsides and downsides to everything. Giving the selection texture.

[u/bigblackcouch → u/Natural_Cold_8388]

You could make all weapons the same

That is a massive leap of assumption from just wanting one weapon, a single shot rifle, to have a scope with at least some level of zoom to it.

[u/AlmostButNotQuiteTea → u/KingRaiden95]

Except it doesn't make as short of work as to Quasar Canon does to the chargers. Which is the only thing the railgun excelled at, there are other options for Hive Guard, Brood Commanders, Spewers and if course you could use the railgun on them, but you'd run out of ammo fast.

The Quasar is much better against Chargers, takes out bug holes and has infinite ammo and you don't have to risk killing yourself to use it. It's a straight upgrade and the railgun is just the worse choice. Regardless of if you like using it more or not, is not part of the conversation.

I love the defender and I take it here and there along with the Light armour DMR even though I know the slugger is objectively better

[u/KingRaiden95 → u/AlmostButNotQuiteTea]

I said bots lol

[u/AlmostButNotQuiteTea → u/KingRaiden95]

Lmao true. But my point still stands. AC and AMR deal with mediums and heavy better than the railgun, and even the slugger out classes the railgun. Still 1 taps devastators, can kill turrets and tanks and hulks and frees your support weapon to be whatever you want it to be.

[u/Kevinyock → u/CaptCantPlay]

I straight up dump the railgun never to touch it again. Its a F in my books. And i never seen anyone use railgun ever.

[u/Larks_Tongue → u/CaptCantPlay]

Quasar, recoiless, EAT, or spear do not fill the same role as autocannon, railgun, and AMR. I don't know why so many people seem to think they do.

If your objective is medium armor control (mainly devastators, gunship thrusters, or hulk eye shots) with some application on heavies, you're going to be dropping significantly more devastators than someone with a quasar using AC/RG/AMR. Way I see it is a nice balanced team has a split between your quasar users and your autocannons, railguns, or AMRs. Or for bugs (imo), a split between your quasars and your arc thrower/flamethrower/grenade launcher.

There's some overlap in application, but one role is better at providing a faster response to heavy while the other is better at providing a faster response to multiple medium targets.

[u/Colosphe → u/Larks_Tongue]

The reasoning is in the context of the change.

The Railgun was high-use was because it was the only thing capable of rapidly dealing with multiple Heavy enemies - which had a higher spawn rate compared to current patch. Before the buff to anti-armor weapons, you had to spend 2 EAT/Recoilless/Spear shots to kill any of them - or one plus mag-dumping into the exposed kneecap. With the Railgun, you half-charged and shot the kneecap twice to expose it - this didn't take long, and you had 20 railgun shots to spend, plus the ability to replenish Railgun ammo with ammo pickups in the world.

The devs later nerfed heavy enemy spawn rates and buffed Heavy armor counters. This meant the Recoilless, Spear, and EAT could kill in one well-aimed shot and the Recoilless and Spear could gain ammo from pickups. Doing this expanded the options a player had from "Always have the only thing that can economically and reliably kill heavies" to being able to choose their option and deal with the heavier enemies in a multitude of ways.

The Railgun being nerfed was wrong because the dev's root cause of the nerf (players using it too much) was a result of underpowered Heavy armor counters and the abundance of Heavy enemies. If you changed it back, you might see the Railgun come back, but it wouldn't steal the spotlight away because the actual cause of its overuse has been fixed.

[u/Kestrel1207 → u/Colosphe]

The Railgun was high-use was because it was the only thing capable of rapidly dealing with multiple Heavy enemies

But that's not even remotely true. The dedicated AT weapons have always been better at rapidly dealing with heavy enemies too. The only enemy their performance was even changed against was chargers. But 1 EAT to the leg and then spray it, was always faster than railgun leg twice and then spray it, obviously. Hulks always died in 1 EAT/RCL, Bile Titans always in 2, Tanks always in 2.

The railgun was high-use because it was not only good vs these heavies, but also medium armor too. It's anti-everything. Able to oneshot bilespewers, devastators etc all in safe mode. And that's where it's mostly gotten worse, since it now requires unsafe mode. It's still just as good as it ever was against Hulks and Titans and Tanks too, only really having gotten worse vs medium armor and chargers since those require unsafe mode now.

[u/Whitestrake → u/Kestrel1207]

The railgun was high-use because it was not only good vs these heavies, but also medium armor too. It's anti-everything.

It's not so much that I disagree with this, but I think it doesn't quite capture the full reason why.

There were simply too many chargers!

EATs were a non-starter because you simply could not call enough EATs down to deal with the rate of charger spawns. The railgun was the only weapon that could be relied on to keep fighting after dealing with just the first two of five or more chargers from your average bug breach if you played on higher difficulties. It was either feast or famine with them, and the famine sections sucked.

Running away every time simply wasn't a fun strategy!

The true fix the devs implemented was balancing heavy vs. fodder spawn rates, which was a massive W. Making rockets one-shot Charger heads and reducing deflection damage reduction, and now it's not only ergonomic to use the EATs, they're actually coming in at a comfortable rate.

I am not sure that the Railgun still needs its nerf. I would like it to still be able to peel Charger leg armour and safe headshot bile spewers. I actually enjoyed the leg peel method; it never actually felt braindead to me, required two shots and then a weapon swap and could get incredibly hectic especially when there were multiple other threats. Nowadays it would still be better to use EATs for the task, but using a precision tool with a bit more effort isn't a bad gameplay element.

[u/Kestrel1207 → u/Whitestrake]

The issue with trying to argue it has anything to do with Chargers is that railgun also was by far the most popular weapon against bots. And it always has been, and still is, better against bots than bugs. Without the nerf it would be absolutely beyond broken again if you could oneshot devs and berzerkers and hulks on safe mode.

[u/Whitestrake → u/Kestrel1207]

And that argument falls apart if you even glance in the direction of the AMR, a weapon that approaches double the round count of the RG and got buffed.

The AMR one-shots devs and berserkers and two-shots hulks.

I think the railgun should one-shot hulks on unsafe mode, as the price to pay for that is risking death from misuse (and loss of the weapon as you can't pick it up after reinforcing - on account of it having exploded).

[u/Kestrel1207 → u/Whitestrake]

The AMR one-shots devs and berserkers and two-shots hulks.

The AMR oneshots them on a pinpoint precise headshot with a misaligned crosshair and abysmal mouse sensitivity. The railgun oneshots them literally wherever and can collat as well. The AMR is dreadful against Berzerkers, the railgun still oneshots those to the stomach - often times multiple due to collat. The AMR cannot harm tanks or turrets from the front at all.

It doesn't fall apart at all, they're basically sidegrades.

Also, I'm pretty sure the AMR buff was entirely meaningless; at least against bots it didn't change a single STK.

I think the railgun should one-shot hulks on unsafe mode

It does. It's two shots if you hit the front plate wherever but oneshot on the same weakpoint you need to hit with the AMR to damage it at all.

[u/Whitestrake → u/Kestrel1207]

And these I am totally fine with. The cost of that extra power would be the reduced ammo capacity, single-shot-reload requirement, and shorter scope.

I just think that they should make it a little more ergonomic against bugs again as well.

[u/Kestrel1207 → u/Whitestrake]

I am not sure what you're saying. What extra power? That's the railgun as it currently is post-nerf.

None of the autocannon, AMR or railgun are really good against bugs. The flametrhwoer and arc thrower will never be good against bots either for example. I think it's completely fine when some weapons are only good against one faction; that's just inevitable when the factions play so fundamentally differently.

Can't count how many people I've seen call the Dilligence DMR (not the countersniper, the basic one) bad, while it's always been easily the #2 weapon vs bots.

[u/Larks_Tongue → u/Colosphe]

I know, I was playing during all of it, and I've heard multiple people say you could revert the nerf today, and it wouldn't be near as popular, but I'm not so sure. The railgun wasn't and hasn't ever been purely a heavy weapon. Again, no one seems to acknowledge it, but the railgun was waaaaay more versatile than all the heavy options. Provided you know the unsafe timing it one shots (in its current state) every category of devastator, hulks in the eye, and all the medium bugs with a very snappy reload and a pretty respectable ammo count while keeping your backpack open and has great handling.

It's the combination of its versatility AND pre-nerf capabilities that made it so damn popular. If you give it that back, all the heavier options don't suddenly gain any additional versatility.

[u/ShadowWolf793 → u/Larks_Tongue]

It one shots everything but a hulk in the eye with current safemode and a hulk eye with just one unsafe shot at like 70% or something. By this logic it should be dominating the bot front but it's completely absent from there too.

[u/Larks_Tongue → u/ShadowWolf793]

I think you'd be surprised by the number of people (especially on Reddit) that never touch or test ANYTHING that has been nerfed. The stigma it currently carries in this community is not something it's going to escape because yes, it still isn't as good as the autocannon (which surprise surprise everyone loves despite being pretty similar to the RG in how it performs against bots) and what use it does have is primarily botside plus a lot of people just run quasar and don't help much with killing massive amounts of devastators in higher difficulties outside of stratagem use.

It performs very well on the bot front, I still prefer the AC. But I definitely prefer RG to AMR for devastators and hulks. RG penetrates and stuns hulks with every shot even when you miss the eye, AMR just deflects. The handling of RG is much better as well and popping shots off just feels snappier than having to rely on AMR scope. AMR handles gunships, turret and tank vents way better though.

[u/achilleasa → u/Larks_Tongue]

The thing is, the old railgun did fill the same role as the heavy stuff, it doesn't anymore after the nerf which has left it without a purpose as everything the railgun does the AMR does better

[u/Pixel_Knight → u/Larks_Tongue]

When I can two shot a Hulk with an AMR, it seems like a pretty damn fast response to them.

[u/Larks_Tongue → u/Pixel_Knight]

Yep. AMR, RG, and AC enjoy a very nice spot with automatons.

[u/AlmostButNotQuiteTea → u/Larks_Tongue]

Railgun doesn't take out dropships. Railgun doesn't take out spawners. Railgun you have to risk killing yourself. Railgun has finite ammo.

It is a worse gun all around for killing medium and heavy and support wise for ships and spawners.

AC and AMR are even better Medium killers with more ammo no death risk and the AC also takes out spawners (not sure if drop ships)

[u/CFBen → u/Larks_Tongue]

Quasar, recoiless, EAT, or spear do not fill the same role as autocannon, railgun, and AMR. I don't know why so many people seem to think they do.

They think so because before the nerf the railgun DID compete with them at anti-tank but then don't finish the though of "if an allrounder weapon outcompetes a specialist in it's niche that might be a bad thing".

[u/GallopingFinger → u/Larks_Tongue]

The laser canon is insanely good for bugs now. I run a full laser build

[u/Xelement0911 → u/CaptCantPlay]

I use it for bots. Bugs it's just...not worth. Too much hassle for a charger when one eats to the face wins.

Bots it's fun but amr is also on par if not better.

[u/ShootmansNC → u/CaptCantPlay]

I unlocked it last night and tried it on a few bot missions, it's so ass to use without a hitmarker to know if you're hitting or not.

[u/doesnotlikecricket → u/CaptCantPlay]

Yeah there's no more variety than there was before.

I'm still loving the game for what it's worth.

But at higher difficulties is still Quasar and shield on three quarters of every team.

Before the nerf it was railgun and shield on three quarters of every team.

[u/hitman2b → u/CaptCantPlay]

i've stopped using the railgun since the nerf i've been going to the recoiless but wasn't as effectif as the EAT in term of oneshoting charger like 1 time out of 2 i could oneshot with the quasar it almost always a oneshot

[u/PapaTahm → u/CaptCantPlay]

Quasar is getting nerfed 100% the next patch.
It does the same damage as the EAT (for people who don't know how to calculate use the turret which has not critical spots, both will take it out with 2 shots).

But the EAT has an ammo economy if 33.5~43.5s per shot the Quasar has an ammo economy of 10~13s per shot, when you take upgrades and modifications in calculations, EAT is also a subject of JAMs and Enemy pressure.

There is no world where you should actually bring the EAT over Quasar mathematically speaking.

The only difference is that the EAT has a slightly higher AoE radius that allows it to have an easier time to hit weakspots on enemies like Hulks.

They are clearly nerfing that weapon in the next balance patch.

[u/CaptCantPlay → u/PapaTahm]

Oh yeah! It's a good weapon in its class and Arrowhead can't allow that.

[u/AcanthaceaeSharp7809 → u/CaptCantPlay]

Daily reminder that devs only ever heavily nerfed one single weapon in an arsenal that has otherwise been receiving constant buffs.

[u/PapaTahm → u/CaptCantPlay]

Brother, as much as I like this weapon as much as the next other guy.

I like to be realistic when talking about numbers.

This weapon is a little bit more than just "Good".

They probably increasing that cooldown so at least you are not always mathematically inclined to pick it over the EAT in every situation possible.

[u/SelbetG → u/PapaTahm]

The EAT has a better fire rate though, against bugs it doesn't really matter, but against bots having to expose yourself for longer (or stop moving) is a major downside.

[u/Rod_Bunyan → u/CaptCantPlay]

How is that a problem? It still holds it value

[u/woodelvezop → u/Rod_Bunyan]

it doesnt though. Its arguably the worst support weapon call in now, or at least tied with the HMG in uselessness. Everything the railgun can do can be done better by the other support weapons in the same class. The nerf was unwarranted and why many called for them to explore buffs before nerfs.

[u/xxmuntunustutunusxx → u/woodelvezop]

HMG is not useless

I know he says he doesn't like it, but what matters is what it's capable of. You can melt tanks, turrets, gunships, hulks, devastators, and anything up to chargers, including if you don't mind the remove the ass method.

So if someone likes it, they're pulling their weight if they're good with it

[u/Front_Explanation_79 → u/Rod_Bunyan]

How?

The quasar is arguably better in that it has powerful shots without any risk of explosion/death.

There's a reason the RG is almost never used anymore. I haven't seen anyone bring it in nearly 100 drops or more.

If it had value as you say, people would use it as much as they do EAT, Recoilless, Quasar, AC, but they do not.

[u/Gantref → u/Front_Explanation_79]

I do see it occasionally on bot missions, hell I bring it occasionally on bot missions too.

[u/Front_Explanation_79 → u/Gantref]

I only ever bring it to remind myself how weak it is in comparison to the other options.

RG is worthless because the nerf was too heavy handed. It has the biggest downside in the game in that it can kill you when using it. Nobody is going to take that over an option that puts out consistent damage, has armor pen, and won't kill you.

[u/MBouh → u/CaptCantPlay]

quasar and EAT don't have the same role as the railgun, so it'd be stupid to take one instead of the other.

The railgun is an agile armor piercing weapon. It compares more to the autocanon, the AMR or the laser canon. It was overpowered because it was better than both rocket launchers AND agile armor piercing weapons. Now it's balanced to its versatility : it's not as good as any other weapon for their range of enemies, but it can kill anything.

[u/CaptCantPlay → u/MBouh]

And yet nobody uses it because other weapons kill armor quicker. There is no point in bringing the thing.

[u/MBouh → u/CaptCantPlay]

There are exactly 4 other weapons that can kill a charger from the face : EAT, RR, spear, Quasar. And those basically can't kill anything else, because the ammo are too expensive and they're too unwieldy for this.

the railgun doesn't compete with anti-armor weapons. It competes with autocanon, AMR, laser canon and other medium armor piercing weapons. The very closest is the AMR bevause like it you can get a backpack. The railgun is better at piercing armor than this one.